WASHINGTON   –  “Federal policies regarding illegal immigrants usually deal with one of two categories of laws. 

First are the enforcement and prevention measures that deter and punish illegal entry to the United States.  These laws fund border patrol efforts and instruct federal courts to deport illegal entrants to our country.  The second variety of laws dealing with illegal immigration set standards that protect federal programs from fraud and abuse by illegal residents who are not entitled to those benefits and services.  It is usually an area of policy centered on requiring and verifying citizenship for enrollment in state and federal programs.

There is a third, new concern with illegal immigration today, however.  Few Americans realize that the apportionment of congressional representatives between the states is based on population – not the population of American citizens, but the number of people (legal residents as well as illegal aliens) who live in a state.  With an estimated eight million illegal immigrants residing in the U.S., the number can absolutely swing the delicate balance of congressional representation in our nation’s Capitol and the corresponding number of electoral votes accorded to states in each presidential election.

These requirements are set by the Constitution, and it is time to consider a change.  I am once again pressing for a constitutional amendment to disallow the counting of illegal immigrants for the purposes of dividing our 435 congressional districts among the states.  We should not allow illegal immigration to influence the representation of U.S. states in the people’s House – the U.S. House of Representatives.

Our Founders did not, and could not have, envisioned a situation in which millions of illegal aliens would tip the balance of power in our federal system.  Yet that  is about to happen as the 2010 Census and congressional redistricting get underway.  States with large illegal populations will be more likely to gain and retain federal representatives and electoral votes, and states on the cusp of losing a congressional district, and therefore a vote in the Electoral College, will be penalized for not hosting large groups of illegal aliens.

Moreover, since many illegal residents do not fill out the forms distributed by the U.S. Census, the size of these population segments can be estimated by the agency using formulas.  This places a tremendously influential political tool in the hands of the party in control of the White House.  It is also time to stop political leadership from influencing the Census data used to make the crucial decisions about how many representatives and Electoral votes each state shall have.

Illegal immigration is a controversial subject, to be sure.  It should not be an issue, however, when illegal immigrants’ presence in some states might shift the balance of political power at the federal level of government.  Tough enforcement of existing laws is necessary, expansion of customs and immigration agencies is absolutely essential, and so is this constitutional amendment to prevent America’s problem with illegal immigration from literally shifting the national balance of power to states where they choose to reside, against the laws of our great nation.”